The feminine name Iphis (Ἶφις Îphis,
gen. Ἴφιδος Ī́phidos) refers to the following personages.
Iphis, daughter of
Ligdus and
Telethusa. Iphis was raised male and eventually transformed into a man by the goddess
Isis in order to marry
Ianthe, daughter of
Telestes.[1]
Iphis, as recounted in
Homer's Iliad, was the slave of
Patroclus,
Achilles' companion-in-arms. A native of
Scyros, she had been enslaved by Achilles when the latter conquered her home island, and given by him to Patroclus.[2] Pausanias describes a painting of Iphis,
Diomede and
Briseis admiring
Helen's beauty as the latter has been brought back to the Greek camp from the sacked
Troy.[3]
Iphis, a
Thespian princess as one of the 50 daughters of King
Thespius and
Megamede[4] or by one of his many wives.[5] When Heracles hunted and ultimately slayed the
Cithaeronian lion,[6] Iphis with her other sisters, except for one,[7] all laid with the hero in a night,[8] a week[9] or for 50 days[10] as what their father strongly desired it to be.[11] Iphis bore
Heracles a son,
Celeustanor.[12]
The masculine name Iphis (Ἶφις Îphis,
gen. Ἴφιος Ī́phios) refers to the following personages.
Iphis, in
Ovid'sMetamorphoses, was a
Cypriot shepherd who loved a woman named
Anaxarete. Anaxarete scorned him and Iphis killed himself in despair. Because Anaxarete was still unmoved,
Aphrodite changed her to stone.[15]
Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928.
Online version at theio.com.
Tzetzes, John, Book of Histories, Book II-IV translated by Gary Berkowitz from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826.
Online version at theio.com
This article includes a list of Greek mythological figures with the same or similar names. If an
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